"The End is in Sight"

‘In Conclusion’:

This like every other story has to end somewhere, so a few words about what happened after the closing of the Heanor ‘Empire’ in 1983.

Most of the employees, who were women, reverted to their home life style; Linda Wheildon, her husband and family, emigrated to New South Wales, Australia. Ina Rowe, now in her nineties lives in Heanor, while Kitty Fowler, and several others have passed away. Joan Tolley never worked again, and she still keeps in touch, reminiscing of her days at the cinema.

What of the partnership that were the foundation of ‘Cinemex’? Frank and Ivy Dainty died in the 1980s, John Dainty their son, continued with his other interest, which was local government for the Doncaster area, and was later associated with the notorious ‘Donnygate’ scandal, which is documented elsewhere.

Early in 2003, I did have a further contact with Dion Hanson via the Internet, when he enquired if I was the same person publishing a web site, whom he remembered from the past. He went on to explain how he didn’t know at the time exactly what was happening, and as a result he came close to losing his home’ when the partnership folded up.

Harold Brown, and myself became good friends after his separation from his wife of twenty five years. When my parents passed away, we shared my home together, until he died in 1995. For about nine years we were known at ‘The American Adventure Theme Park’, where for four years, I was a singer, entertaining during the summer season, with Granada Entertainments, and also local clubs venues in the area.

Harold Brown was later nominated for a prestigious BBC television Esther Rantzen ‘Heart of Gold Award’; see the photograph at the top of this web page.

In 1999, I was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent major surgery, but recent checks have found me clear. The point of this simple documentation of the Heanor’ Empire’ story, is so that people can judge for themselves, how the demise of the cinemas came about. For myself, even today, I am still spoken of as: ‘Bernard Goodwin, wasn’t he the last Manager of the Heanor ‘Empire’?
Yes, I was that man!

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‘Danesway Revisited’:

In May 2003, full of nostalgic memories evoked by finding so many old cinemas and theatres closed or demolished, I set out on a sort of ‘pilgrimage’.

From the very first meeting with the ‘Cinemex’ partnership, I had found that I got on well with them all, and in some ways got to know more than the average employee.

Frank Dainty was then in retirement, he had seen service with Compton – Parkinson in Doncaster for many years, and on retirement was presented with a gold inscribed wrist watch, and received a good pension which he had saved, he told me. They had had a large bungalow built in the village of Blaxton, which they had named “Danesway”, a place which he and his wife Ivy cherished.

I recall Mrs. Dainty telling me that their home had been built to their own specifications, and that they were going to enjoy what money they had accrued over the years as an investment, for the rest of their lives.

Both Harold Brown and I were invited to visit ‘Danesway’, which we did one Wednesday, and were shown around by Frank Dainty. The bungalow was impressive to say the least, with the largest attic I had ever seen; later to be converted into two bedrooms and a shower room, For cinema buffs like Harold and I it was like an Aladdin’s Cave, with cans of 16mm film neatly stored in piles, and a couple of projectors. These I was told, were from the days when Axholme Cinema Services was in business, but with the new cinema now expanding, this all became surplus to requirements.

‘Mutiny at the Empire’:

Frank and Ivy Dainty loved ‘Danesway’, it was all they had ever wanted they told me, and after they had gone, it was to become son John’s. For the next few years they went through a succession of events which gave them great pleasure. John was elected to be a County Councillor; he also got married to a lovely young lady called Ann – Marie, and as one would expect, the affair was a lavish affair.


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Wedding photographs were proudly shown to us at the next visit; taken in the grounds of a nearby hall, with peacocks roaming free to enhance the event.

Reflecting now on these events, it seems ludicrous that they were enjoying the luxuries of life, with expensive meals out, new cars, and holidays etc; while the employees back at the Heanor ‘Empire’, (and at the other cinemas I learned later), were working a two hour matinee on Bank Holidays for just 75 pence! They had an option of course, if they didn’t like the pay; then find someone else to do the job!

The week before Easter one year found me with a revolt on my hands, when with good reason, the whole of the female staff got together and decided that they had had enough, it was to be a case of ‘No more dough, No more show!’

Frank Dainty, who made up the wages, asked me on the telephone about the arrangements for the Easter Week, and who was working the shifts, so payment could be made in that weeks wages. I told him that none of us, including myself, wanted the extra time, or matinees, because, for the rate of pay, it wasn’t worth leaving home.

He was furious, I think mainly because I had taken the side of the staff, and was about to join them in their revolt. He told me he wanted a meeting on the Saturday night, to discuss the matter, and John Dainty would be coming to ‘put us in the picture’, about what the request for more pay would mean.

We had heard it all before, about profits, unpredictability of programmes, and the rest, terminating with the now usual ‘we might have to close you down’ remarks, but we all were standing firm, which didn’t please him. However, we did get a result, which was still an insult at an extra pound for the matinees, fifty pence on all wages, and a new bonus on sales shared by everyone, based on ‘the more you sell, the more you make’ idea. This in actual terms meant the opposite; ‘the more we sell, the more they make’. We later discovered that even with blockbuster sales our bonus was never to exceed £3.00p each in total, but we never read the small print!

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‘Sorrow’:

Reflecting on these events, I stood nostalgically outside 17 Bank End Road, Blaxton, on a lovely spring day, recalling how much we had all given, for so little.

The “Danesway” bungalow was up for sale, after John Dainty had become involved in the now infamous ‘DonnyGate’ Scandal of recent years. A ‘Halifax Estate Agents’ sign wavered in the gentle breeze.

Like some discarded object, Frank and Ivy’s ‘Dream Home’ was on offer. The asking price was £199. 000 pounds, for the five bedroom detached property, with two reception rooms, gardens to the front and rear, a spiral staircase, and a driveway to the garage.

Structurally it was the same as I remembered it from the past, except that the ‘largest attic I had ever seen’, was now converted into two bedrooms, with a shower room; built I expect to cope with the influx of visitors it had seen over the years.

I remembered how shocked Ivy Dainty was when vandals drained the local duck pond, just after it had been built; she would have been even more shocked if she could view the old home now. They had given it to John as a wedding present, possibly the nicest gesture that they could have done; and with a feeling of disgust, I drove towards Finningley in the knowledge that the whole area is in a time of change, with the proposed coming of the Doncaster International Airport.

‘On to Better Things’:

I later went on to better things after the end of my cinema era. Look for the photograph ofnme in a publicity photograph for the 'American Adventure' Theme Park in Derbyshire, where I became an entertainer for five years, as well as working on the club circuit all around the Midlands.

‘Looking Back’:

Looking back over the years I don’t have any regrets about how I conducted my life. There are times when I meet people I knew from my cinema days; I see them in shops, sometimes in the street, and they come up to me and ask if I miss the job, and the ‘Empire’, now that it is gone, replaced by a block of flats named ‘Empire Court’.

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Things had reached the stage where the audiences had changed, the happy days of the musical and the cowboy film had been replaced by sex, and violence, and all the nasty things that went with them. I recall going into the auditorium one night just before the cinema folded up, and coming out again some ten minutes later, sickened by what we were showing. I remember thinking to myself, that those inside must be mentally sick to endure such trash.

Do I miss the ‘Empire’ they ask. Well I spent a lot of my time there, and it was like a second home. Whatever you do on limited resources, you can only keep things at an acceptable level, and for the ‘Empire’ it needed to be a large influx of cash, to bring it up to what the luxury cinema complexes were offering. It was big with lots of wasted space; in use for only about five hours out of a 24 hour period; impossible to keep heated to the standard that the patrons expected; and rather like the story behind the Forth Bridge.

I recall going down to do the banking one morning after a heavy fall of snow. As I pulled up on the forecourt and looked at the front doors, I noticed they were opaque with condensation. ‘Oh my Goodness’ I thought, ‘I’ve left the heat on all night!’ I hadn’t in fact. What it was, the temperature was warmer outside than in, and the condensation had formed on the OUTSIDE of the glass doors! The building needed daily maintenance because of rapid decay.

I was always amazed that we never got robbed when we were busy, the cash desk and sales counter was open, with no protection from whoever might walk in, and demand the takings. Many was the time I was threatened with personal violence by a teenage patron, they would tear the seat squab, and pull out the foam, while the lights were down. Write graffiti on corridor walls and a dozen other things that bored teenagers are capable of.

Then there was the younger element which we played ‘babysitter’ too at Bank Holidays, if it wasn’t a Disney programme, they would come out to buy confectionary every five minutes, request a drink of water every ten minutes, after eating half a dozen bags of crisps, talk aloud to their friends, open fire doors on the way to the toilet, and ask what time does the film end, twenty minutes after it had just started!

Violence had become a part of society, and I guess we were instrumental in promoting it as much as any other media. In my day we had our screen hero’s like John Wayne, Tom Mix, and Buster Crabbe.

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The cinema audiences of the seventies and eighties had their hero’s like Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Chuck Norris.

My hero was content to ride into the sunset, with the girl of his dreams; but modern day society wants their hero to do more; like bring anarchy and rule people’s lives.

Four days after locking the front doors for the last time, the telephone at home never stopped ringing, people and reporter wanted to know what happened. The telephone at ‘Daintyland’ was disconnected, so we couldn’t get to know how we stood regarding redundancy; they were not really interested. Two weeks earlier I had just taken delivery of a new Renault 5 car, and luckily I was able to pay in cash from my account. It seemed that nobody was going to tell us anything now, so I went to see Harold Brown, and suggested we went away somewhere for a holiday, and we chose North Yorkshire.

While there relaxing in Wensleydale I wrote a story for the Renault Magazine, which earned me fifty ponds, which was waiting on my return home. Four weeks after closure we all met up again, and went to see a solicitor, who said he would be happy to deal with the redundancy payments to which we were all entitled too. Communication at this time was none existent with the company, and we heard nothing, until one morning our cheques came through the post. Later that day one of the staff called me to say they had received a redundancy cheque to which they were legally not entitled too, this was due to a technicality in the companies book keeping.

Before going further I stopped the caller at that point and said, ‘Look we are not having this conversation any further, because I just do not want to know’. There was a pause for a moment, and I recall saying something like ‘If you have a cheque then go and bank it as fast as you can, they have had enough out of us all with cheap labour over the years, now we should make them pay anyway we can’. That was the last of our dealings with ‘Cinemex’


A few people have even told me it brings a tear to their eye as they pass the former cinema site, but I am unaffected emotionally. The life of the ‘Empire’ had to end at some point, and for me, I consider 1983 was just about right.

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That's it folks - That's yer lot"

(c) Bernard Goodwin 2003.